Scot left stranded on Thai island after her friends ‘poisoned’

A SCOTTISH teaching assistant has told of being stranded in a resort in Thailand where two of her friends were found dead from suspected poisoning.

A SCOTTISH teaching assistant has told of being stranded in a resort in Thailand where two of her friends were found dead from suspected poisoning.

Samantha Kay, 24, said she is stuck on a Thai island because medical staff who treated her have confiscated her passport.

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Ms Kay, of Dundee, fell ill shortly before sisters Audrey, 20 and Noemi Belanger, 26, were found dead in their hotel room in Phi Phi Island last Friday.

The Scot spent three days in hospital being treated for suspected food poisoning but despite discharging her, hospital executives kept her passport.

Last night, she told how the hospital refuses to return it until she pays her £400 medical bill.

Speaking from the tourist resort, Ms Kay said: “I was really ill. Food poisoning has been spoken about but it was dehydration as well. It could have been bacteria or a virus or something.

“The hospital kept my passport because the insurance company wouldn’t pay up-front for my treatment. I can’t leave here until my dad pays the £400. I’m sure I’ll get it back from the insurance, but what if I didn’t have my dad? I’d be stuck here.”

Ms Kay said she met the Canadian sisters, from Quebec, when she was promoting restaurants and bars on the island.

The sisters were both found dead by a cleaning lady at the Phi Phi Palms Hotel on Friday.

Ms Kay said investigators found evidence of vomit in the hotel room and told how the sisters had skin lesions, bleeding gums and blue fingernails, which can be symptoms of poisoning.

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She said: “The girls were lovely. I chatted to them and we ended up dancing at the club. I don’t know what’s happened, they’re saying they were poisoned.

“Some people said it might have been a gas leak at the hotel, other people said it could have been fumes from cleaning fluid they use in the flats.”

Phi Phi police say it is too early to determine how the sisters died but ruled out foul play.

They confirmed the hotel room where the sisters were found had not been broken into and was locked from the inside.

The Scottish teaching assistant’s father, Dudley Kay, 65, who runs a Dundee guesthouse, said: “She thought it was a good medical and travel insurance policy but we have found out the small print says she is not insured if she travels for longer than 90 days, which she has.

“Sami is scared now because of the deaths. She just wants to get out. She really wants our help, but it’s hard for me to do much all the way back in Dundee.”

Mr Kay said he had paid his daughter’s bill but she will not receive her passport back until the money has cleared, which is likely to be later this week.

Three years ago on Phi Phi, two women, an American and a Norwegian, were found poisoned in their adjoining rooms. The deaths are still unsolved.